The Crash of 004

I was a long way from the helicopter that I crewed on my first tour in Viet Nam. Having a dual MOS, (Military Occupation Specialty), in both fix wing and rotary wing aircraft, I was now back in Long Thong North,Viet Nam as a tech inspector on the OV-1 Mohawk. This was a twin turboprop battlefield surveillance airplane used to locate the enemy with a lot of new technology. It flew at night using infrared, and side looking radar, along with some day time visual or photo flights. Also, we had a one of a kind of airplane. It was mostly a glider with an engine. When I first arrived in the company, this YO-3A Quiet Star, (Nicked named YoYo), had 6 wooden blades, but later was changed to only 3 blades. The blades were powered by 12 drive belts. We like to kid the maintenance staff about having a large model plane with rubber bands. The observer that flew with the YoYo used a night vision periscope to find the enemy with great success.

For sure it was a forerunner of a stealth plane, with it’s muffler running the length of the plane. It was such a quiet running plane, that it was very hard to hear it taxing along the taxi way. Since it flew at night, you had to be real careful when walking on the taxi ramp. It would be on you before you could hear the blades turning. I often said that it needed a horn to warn us that it was coming. Charlie never knew it was over him at night. Even when the plane was taking off, it was quiet. One night I saw one taking off, (002), and could barely hear it, when the engine quit. The pilot, (Captain Walker), had enough air speed to take it around and turn final, (remember I said it was a glider with an engine), but crash landed on a road outside the fence. He and his observer, a guy named Jim something, walked away. I remember that night because, the perimeter guards thought the noise of the crash was the enemy attacking us and opened up with everything they had. Me, I ran for the bunkers. I want to think that the tech inspector for the YoYo’s, told me that 002 flew again one day, but my memory has faded too much to remember for sure.

This June the 6th will mark the 40th anniversary of the last fight of 004, another YO-3A. I remember the next morning when I went to the chow hall for breakfast that a lot of the flight crews were all bunch together with somber looks on all their faces, and that’s when I learned that we had a plane go down during the night and now waiting to hear about survivors. It was just a short time before we learned that Borchers and Loving were killed in the crash. Loving was a short timer who flew the Mohawks, and wanted to fly with his friend in a YO-3A one time before he went home. I never learned what cause the crash, but it was not hostile fire. More than likely it was engine stoppage, since that plane had a history of that. That was a sad day for our company. I will never forget these guys, and wanted to remember them this Memorial Day. And that’s all I got to say about that, (to borrow a quote)…